A Devotional Life

Matthew 2:1-12. Once, I was with some friends, and we saw a famous person; they all got very excited, but I did not. When they began chatting about the celebrity, they realised why I missed the excitement. Matthew presents Jesus in a famous manner that demands a response that those who know Him can not miss out on. The gospel begins by showing that the nature of Jesus' birth proves He is the one all history and prophecies point to. He is The Promised King. He is of David's lineage (Matthew 1:17, 2 Samuel 7:13). The Promised Saviour. He is the seed of a woman, i.e. not of man but of God, like the first Adam (Matthew 1:18, Genesis 3:15). The Promised Lord. He is Immanuel - God with us - Israel's God is here (Matthew 1:23, Isaiah 7:14). So the news is out that Israel's God - The Messiah King, The Saviour, The Lord - whom all generat...

Psalm 8. In the passage, the Psalmist reminds us of the majesty of God in creation, and the glorious inheritance we have through the cross of Jesus. v2 You have ordained strength to the weak in order to silence the enemy. v3-5 You have ordained (crowned) glory and honour to man (much more than you ordained to other works of your hands) in order to demonstrate your love (how ‘mindful' you are for us). v6-8 You have ordained (made to have) dominion in order to show the majesty of your cross (because you have put all things under his feet). And for Your bloody, wonderful, glorious cross - which defeated Your enemies (including death), demonstrated Your love for us, and caused us to reign as co-heirs with Christ (Eph 1:18-23), we say O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth! Reflect & Pray What change has th...

Matthew 2:1-11. I still remember my first attempt at reading through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. My mum gave my elder sister and me a classic reading plan during my first year at university, with a small prize for whoever finished first. At first, I was motivated by the reward. But somewhere along the way, something deeper happened. When I reached Genesis 6:5-6 and read about humanity’s sin and the grief of God, the weight of our brokenness became real to me. As I continued through the Old Testament, I journeyed with the strong sense of awareness that: the world was lost, and we needed rescue. But when I arrived at the first two chapters of Matthew, I found the hope. Particularly in this verse “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21) For me, it was as though the grief of ...